Eighty knee replacements with a total condylar prosthesis in patients who had rheumatoid arthritis were followed for ten years.
At ten years, nineteen knees needed revision and sixty-one prostheses were still functioning. The major reasons for revision
were loosening of the tibial component or late bacteremic seeding from another site. Radiolucency at the bone-cement interface
adjacent to the tibial component was statistically related to malposition of the tibial component. According to the system
of The Hospital for Special Surgery, the mean scores were 64 points preoperatively and 85 points postoperatively. Synovitis
recurred in only 3 per cent of the knees. When revision, pain, or radiographic evidence of loosening were considered an indication
of failure, the ten-year cumulative survival was 75 per cent.
The Classic Article is © 1990 by the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc. and is reprinted with permission from Laskin
RS. Total condylar knee replacement in patients who have rheumatoid arthritis. A ten-year follow-up study. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1990;72:529–535.
Richard A. Brand MD ✉ Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 1600 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA e-mail:
dick.brand@clinorthop.org
No benefits in any form have been received or will be received from a commercial party related directly or indirectly to the
subject of this article. No funds were received in support of this study.
Read in part at the Annual Meeting of The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Las Vegas, Nevada, February 11, 1989.